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Energy firm lays off more employees

Halliburton cuts its staff for 3rd time in 2 months

Halliburton laid off more workers in the Grand Valley on Friday, marking the third time the energy-services company has laid off local employees in the past two months.

Local Halliburton officials declined to comment Friday.

One man, a 43-year-old with a wife and three children, told The Daily Sentinel in a phone interview he received a call at 8 p.m. Thursday from the company telling him not to report for work but rather show up for a meeting at 3:30 p.m. Friday. Halliburton used a similar procedure the previous two rounds of layoffs, which were March 5 and March 25.

“I knew exactly what that meant,” he said.

The man, who didn’t want to be identified, estimated 30 people were asked to report to the company’s Grand Junction office in the afternoon and let go, although he said more employees were called into a morning meeting and laid off.

He said a security officer escorted him to his vehicle about 10 minutes after he arrived.

“I asked if I could stick around and wait for the guys I worked with, and they were like, ‘Nope, you need to get off the property now,’ ” he said.

He said Halliburton told laid-off workers they could apply for jobs at other Halliburton locations but weren’t guaranteed rehiring. Employees were paid two weeks’ worth of severance, unused vacation time and 40 hours for the week, he said.

The man said he and his family moved from Denver to Grand Junction six months ago and bought a house after being hired.

“When I got hired out here by Halliburton, they said, ‘There’s enough gas in those hills to last another 25 years, so you can pretty much count on a job for the next 25 years. And all that changed, just like, overnight,” he said.

The man, who said he worked fracturing rock for drilling, said he signed contracts that would have forced him to pay back $5,200 in training expenses if he quit within six months and $1,500 in moving expenses if he quit in the first year.

“It’s all very one-sided,” he said.

The man said he spent all day Friday looking for a job. One company had posted a sign on its door indicating it wasn’t accepting applications.

“No one is hiring. Everyone is shutting down,” he said.

Outside of the Halliburton offices at 3199 D Road, employees who had been laid off were reluctant to speak with the media Friday afternoon.

One man whose job was to help fracture rock for drilling said, “It’s just the economy, cutting back on costs.”

Another driver in a truck said of the layoffs, “They did ’em, that’s all I know.”

One worker was not happy to see the media outside of his workplace.

“Why don’t you cover other companies that are laying off instead of picking on these guys?” he said.